There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

There is a movement that is intent on removing all vestiges of God from the public square.  Displays of commandments, the phrases mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance and on our currency, any public declaration of the name Jesus; all these are taboo, dangerous, and have to be gotten rid of.  Unless of course you are blaspheming or ridiculing God or Jesus.  Then you might become a celebrity.

The radical atheist movement is in league with the enemy.  They might not know it and logically could not if they are the atheists they claim to be.  I have a little experience as an atheist and this movement confuses me.  When I did not believe in God, I was not scared or threatened by Him or any of these displays.  You could go to church, pray, give away your money to the church or to the makers of all of these t-shirts, plaques, crosses, etc., and it did not bother me one bit.  It actually amused me, unless my saved wife was using our money. 

But these neo-atheists don’t portray an assurance of their conviction.  They, instead portray the opposite. They seem to be scared of something they supposedly do not believe in. 

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now.  

We have an election coming up and are faced with the fact that there are no qualified, trustworthy, competent, CHRISTLIKE, electable candidates to choose from for the highest office in our nation.   As this nations government gets bigger and bigger, the broad way to hell seems to be expanding also. 

The war that probably never should have happened goes on and on and the only way to end it will seriously dampen every other nations opinion of us as a world power.  In the meantime, people die.

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

There is not a lot of good news coming from anywhere.  The economy seems to be heading in a direction that is simply scary.  There are people losing jobs and people with little work.  Gas is ridiculously high and impacting everything’s pricing.  Some are losing their homes.  Some are losing their stuff.  We are in an economy that is affecting most people in some way. 

There is no clear way to fix the problems.  So we are faced with many lifestyle adjustments. 

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

On a personal level, I have friends and family that are being devastated by attacks that seem to be intensifying.  Things such as marital discord, child rebellion and hostility, addictions in loved ones, antagonistic in-laws, and many other cacoetheses’ are affecting many families that I know personally. 

But we trust God.  Or do we?  Are our actions and reactions to these attacks displaying this trust?

As far as the atheist movement goes, I take the same attitude that I did as an atheist.  I don’t care.  Because I do trust God.  I do not need a plaque to declare to me the ten commandments.  In fact, I don’t even have to memorize them.  Jesus taught and the Holy Spirit impressed on me that they are all summed up in the two.  The two are, to love God and love everyone else, even my enemies. 

I don’t need my money to remind me that I trust God.  I am not even sure as a card carrying patriot of the Kingdom of God that I should even recite the pledge of allegiance.  I ask the same thing of all those Christians that rally behind a movement to legislate morality and have this worldly government recognize my God, what are you afraid of? 

Just look at the picture I used in this post.  It seems that almost every notion of trusting God in our culture has to be pictured as conjoined with this nation.  But I would dare say there are more outside this nation that truly do trust Him than here.   

As far as the election goes, I think I will let these words from the comment section of Cerulean Sanctum, by Dan Edelen say it for me. 

“Our responsibility in voting is to represent the Kingdom of God. We do not compromise. We do not support candidates who make concessions to evil. That may mean that we must vote for someone outside the two major parties. It may mean that we write in a God-fearing candidate. It may mean that we vote for no one in a particular race if a godly candidate has not been revealed to us by the Lord. Our focus is not in ensuring we vote for the winning side or that we cast our vote against someone wicked, but that we vote in a way that honors the Lord and shows us to understand that Christ has no fellowship with Belial.”

He says what I feel much better than I could.

As far as the economy goes, there is not much to say except, trust God.  And heed these words of our Lord.

Mat 6:19-26  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal  “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

As for my friends and family that are close, I encourage you to embrace this season of trial and tribulation for what it is.  An attack of the enemy that has become so severe in your lives because of the attention you are getting from them.  You must be doing the work of the Lord to be hit with such an onslaught. 

Continue in prayer and love, for these are the weapons that make us victorious.  And know that I am praying with and for you.

So again I ask us all, In God We Trust?

I really hope so.

Love you all

Please click here for audio edition of running.

Running.  Not fast.  Not slow.  Just running. 

I am running, and have been, for so very long.  I can’t even remember when I started.  Why am I running?  Because I am being chased. 

I don’t know who is chasing me.   I know that I cannot let them catch me.  I can’t see them when I glance back, but I can feel them.  Somehow I know they, or he, is close.  I pick up the pace, even though the pain is becoming unbearable. 

Breathing. Just catching enough of that life sustaining substance called oxygen, has become one of the most important things, in life.  I gasp, for that sweet, invisible element of life itself, with an urgency, that displays my struggle.  The effort to catch my breath almost, overwhelms the pain.  Almost.

The pain.  I try to work through the pain. The pain is in every part of my body.  Needles piercing my shins.  Fire settling into my thighs.  Intense pressure on my lower back.  Cramps in my sides.  Acid filling my lungs. 

Running.  Endlessly.  A glance over my shoulder again.  No sign of my pursuer but, I know he is closing in on me.  I can feel it.

The pain grows. Transforms.  Metamorphoses’ into a wholly different kind of pain, that is worse than before.  The needles, fire, and pressure, are still there, but seem distant. Still excruciating and intense.  But now there are new pains. 

The sweat has drenched my clothing and causes it to rub raw any part of me that is in contact.  And that, is all of me.

Running. How long must I keep this up?  As I said, I don’t even know how long I have been running.  Maybe all my life.  How long?  Had I really been running all my life?  Impossible, but, I cannot remember a time, when I was not running.  When did I start running?  I JUST WANT TO STOP!  Just let him catch me and see what will happen.  But I can’t.  I am scared. 

The pain again.  My shoes hitting the ground with a wet sloppy sounding plop.  This is probably from the sweat and the blood.  Yes, blood.  I have been running so long, that the blisters seem to form, fill and burst every second.  Or so it seems.  And the raw places, all over my body, are starting to bleed.  Looking back, I see a trail of blood, sweat and tears that my enemy cannot help but follow easily.

Tears?  They start flowing like a steady stream as if someone, has left a faucet on.  Mixing, with the sweat and blood.  Or, am I just, crying tears of, blood?

The sweating stops.  The tears form dry crusty trails on my face.  Nasal passages are dry, and on fire.  I need hydration.  But the blood still flows freely, from various parts of my body.  Who would have thought, that you could run yourself to death.  This is what I am doing.  Maybe, I will just stop. 

I stumble, and almost fall.  Barely catching myself in time.  Another glance back gives me the impression that he is almost on me.  Still can’t see him though.  The enemy.  Why is he chasing me? 

Running.  The pain.  A wave of terror engulfs me as I realize that, I have to stop.  Can’t go on.   Every inch of my body is screaming in pain.  Even the cells.  A human being is not made to be in perpetual motion.   

A truth suddenly occurs to me.  It is okay.  I do not have to fear anymore.  It is time to die.  Nothing in life is worth keeping on this way.  And the sting of death, cannot possibly, compare, to the pain I have endured.  Running.  From my invisible enemy.  Maybe all my life. 

I stop.  Ready to die. 

Then I am hit from behind, and tackled and taken to the ground.  Bowled over by the moon.  Or so it seems.

The power that is against me is, incomprehensible.  I struggle.  I cry out with a sound that I cannot imagine a man could make.  I only thought I had felt pain.  But this, is pain.  The running had caused excruciating pain but this is torturous, unendurable.  It feels like mountains are being slammed into me.  I scream, and wrestle, and scream.

All while I marvel at the realization that my enemy is, really, invisible. He seems to be absorbing me.  Becoming one with me.  Taking over my very being.  I am no more but, I am still here.  Please, just let me die, or kill me fast. 

Suddenly, I realize the pain, is subsiding.  I realize he is not, and has not caused me any pain.  He is, actually, removing it.  But, the removal is more intense than the original occurrence.  But the pain, is decreasing.  And in its place, another sensation.  One that I don’t know.  I have never felt this.  I do not know the name for it.  But it is, good. 

Then, in an instant, all of the pain is gone.  And the enemy?  Or is he?  The presence, seems to be separating from me.  I feel like me now.  But not me.  He is gone, but not totally.  He left some of himself, with me, and in me.  And I am not me.  I am new.  Different.  Alive.  For the first time in my life. 

I know all things.  I know nothing.  I have been reborn.  Or born again.  I am a new creation.  Sensations I could not name a few moments ago.  Could this be-peace.  And joy unspeakable. 

My enemy?  Chasing me all my life.  To harm me?  No. Only trying to give me a precious gift.  He was not my enemy.  I was his.  But for some strange, and incredible reason, He loves me.  And gives me the gift– of Himself.

Why?  Why did I run? 

Now I stand.  Alive for the first time in my life. 

Amazed.

Love you all

Jonathan Wallis was born on April 4 1975.  His father was a steelworker and his mother was a waitress.  He didn’t have much when he was a child because his parents split up early in his life.  But he was a good boy and when his mother had to work at two jobs he had a lot of time alone.  He loved to read and stayed out of serious trouble and after a rough start, did very well in school.  He put himself through college and graduated with two doctorates.  At the age of thirty one in 2006 he developed a laser treatment that removed tumors in the brain without invasive surgery.

Susie Johnston was also born in 1975.  Her parents were in college when she was born and the strain on their relationship was tremendous but, they worked through it and were able to raise Susie in a good, loving, giving environment.  She became a nurse and in 2003 moved to South America to open an orphanage and medical clinic.

Josh Burroughs was born in August 1975.  He was placed in a state home immediately because his mother was in a rehab program and didn’t want him.  He was moved around for a few years and was abused.  But the Burroughs, Bill and Gloria, adopted him at 10 years of age.  With a lot of love and affirmation they motivated him to also finish college and move into research.  Just this year he announced, along with his team, that they had developed a cure for AIDS.

By this time you might be saying to yourself, “Wait a minute.  I haven’t heard of any of this.”  And you would be right.  None of the above happened.  I made it all up.  I was just wondering, what might have been. 

These three fictitious people, born thirty three years ago, might have been real.  They might just be three of the over one million casualties of war that happened in the worst battleground that existed in 1975.  That battleground was the womb of a woman that was told it was her right to kill an innocent.  An unwanted and unplanned child could be slaughtered in the womb and discarded as trash by any woman for any reason.  What an age of compassion and enlightenment we live in. 

Legislation was passed as the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), and signed into law in 1970.  This established the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality

In 1972, the United Nations held the first Human Environment conference which led to the development of special government agencies like the UN Environment Program to help regulate and set environmental standards.  This was so we could make sure and protect this earth we live on. 

In 1973 came the Endangered Species Act.  Peter Singer was also working on his book, Animal Liberation, which was published in 1975.  His main thesis is that if women can have rights, then animals should too. 

Our enemy also won a major victory in 1973.  Around the same time so many came to the defense of the planet and the animals that live on it, a few men sold out to the enemy and overturned many state laws that had protected the innocent child. 

And look at how far we have come.  We have a multitude of laws protecting the environment and animals.  We have groups out to convince us of global warming and animal species extinction.  We can go to jail for inhumane treatment of an animal.  We can’t even, by law, put a dog out of its misery in old age but instead, must let a veterinarian do it, in case we cause it to inadvertently suffer.

Peter Singer has moved on to teaching that a child is not even a person until some elusive time when it obtains, “rationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness.” These are required for a child to have the “essential characteristics of personhood.” 

So it’s okay that since 1973, because of some of our most prestigious judges being sold out to the enemy, we, as a nation, have slaughtered almost forty million innocent children in the name of selfishness. 

Imagine the potential that has been wasted.  Some of the earlier casualties of this warfare would be reaching the ages of maximum contribution to society.  God had a plan and a set of abilities and gifts for each one of them.

In the fiction I wrote at the beginning of this article, Jonathan was aborted because the parents didn’t really love each other and didn’t want a kid.  Susie was aborted because her parents found her to be inconvenient and an unfair burden to come from an evening of fun.   And no one was there for Josh’s mother to tell her that she could do something different.  The center she was in just wanted the child out of the way. 

There are many reasons that some think they should murder the innocent.  And I really hate that I sound so harsh.  And I do not judge or condemn anyone that has made this decision.  God loves you no matter what you might have done.  He can forgive you for whatever you might have done. 

I just wanted to point out one thing. 

Satan told Eve a lie.  She believed it and brought all of us into a war we didn’t ask for.  He is still lying.  He is telling some that murder is okay and he is telling some that it doesn’t matter if others do it as long as they don’t.  If anyone is okay with abortion, whether a woman having one, or a politician okay with it, or a person ignoring this by their vote, they are serving the enemy.

Anyone that could be a party to the dismemberment of an innocent, helpless child is deceived by the enemy of all of our souls.

Don’t buy into his lie?

I really love you all

Our lives can be measured by a number of key events or stages.  All have a beginning and most can be seen to be an ending also.  Some of these are totally out of our control and some we can control to some extent. 

Conception is where each one of us began.  God only created two as far as we can tell.  After that He asked us to share in His plan by being fruitful.  Since that command the population has depended on procreation.  There is not one person alive that was not conceived by a man and a woman.  Our lives began there and we can say with assurance that there was not an ending of anything.  Unless we try to say it was an end to our nonexistence.  Which I think is rather absurd.  So we can call this The Beginning.

Birth is another and the very next beginning for all of us.  Our mothers carried us all through the first stages of life and then when the time came for us to be born, we entered into another stage.  Birth can be called an ending in the sense that we had to leave the perfect nurturing embrace of the womb and enter the cold hard world we live in.  But for most it isn’t too bad.  A lot of people who came before are there, to love and embrace us, and keep us safe.  Birth is both a beginning and an ending.

School is the next major beginning for most of us.  We come to that place in time where we must start our preparation for what is to come.  We do that by leaving our homes and going off for the first time alone.  So we can learn what society believes we need to know.  Some of us never finish school.  Some of us seem to never want to finish school.  But we all have to move on at some time. 

Work.  Entering the workforce is the next beginning point that we can measure.  It is an ending of the time where we were basically as free as we would ever be.  We now take on real life responsibilities.  All of those teens who just wanted school to end will now be able to see that they had it made.  Work is the thing that most of us will do for the majority of the time we live on this earth. 

Marriage is another major beginning.  It might not fall in this order.  Some marry in school.  And although it may be very rare, some even get married after they retire.  Marriage is one of the best beginnings.  A lot of people joke about it and a lot of people don’t make it all the way through.  But almost all of us really want someone to share this life with.  It is the way God made us.  If it is going to work it should be an ending to our selfishness.  We must give ourselves to the one we marry.

Parenthood is a beginning for most people.  It is not for everyone but it is a very important stage in life.  We not only finally get to share creative power with God; we also get to share in the love for those who are so much less than us.  At least to start.  If it is not, it should be an ending to our own immaturity.  We may have finished school, gotten a job and gotten married, and still be babies ourselves.  But if we want to be the parents we should be, we need to grow up.

Retirement is next if we make it that far.  We finally get to stop working and live out our remaining years in a somewhat less demanding structure.  But it is an end to the bustling world of deadlines and meetings, stress and tiredness, and some just can’t do without it.  At a time when we should be at rest some find only boredom and anxiousness. It is very much an ending as well as a beginning.   

Death is the next beginning.  And it is the best of all.  Some of you may look at it as only an ending, an ending to life.  Some may see that it is not just an ending but is also a beginning.  But do you really see it as the greatest beginning of all? 

2Co 5:1  For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2Co 5:2  For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

2Co 5:3  if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

2Co 5:4  For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened–not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

2Co 5:5  He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

2Co 5:6  So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,

2Co 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight.

2Co 5:8  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

While we are at home in this body we are away from the Lord. Death is the doorway we go through that allows us to leave behind all the beginnings and endings and spend eternity with the only one who has no beginning or ending, the Alpha and the Omega. 

When we were conceived we were doomed to a pretty rotten future.  But God made us a way through Jesus Christ to achieve that most glorious of all beginnings.  We call it death but God calls it homecoming

Love you all.